Hillary hysteria at FOX News

Despite frequent revelations about Mrs. Clinton’s problematic ways of doing things, and in the face of daily doses of Hillary hammering on FOX News, she remains popular, reports our U.S. correspondent Tomas Mega

You cannot argue with facts. They are attractive, leggy, purposely toss their abundant manes of blonde hair and are consecrated with surplus attributes of the female physique. There are even a few brunettes. More often than not, their necklines plunge, and their choreographed, cross-legged posture reveals just enough upper leg to detain the immediate attention of male and female viewers alike. They are the women of FOX News and they detest Hillary Clinton.

Google just about anything related to “FOX News women,” and you’ll get hits for sites like “Fox News and their leggy babes,” “Fox News hotties,” and even “Fox News girls legs photo gallery.” Nevertheless, they are not just beautiful, model perfect females who despise Mrs. Clinton. They’re experienced, tough and well educated, earning journalism, graduate and law degrees.

They are also very popular, dominating FOX News and business programing throughout the week. The afternoon segment of “Outnumbered” features a rotating ensemble of four women panellists and one male, discussing current issues. “The Five” features three women panellists and two male. Former Miss America Gretchen Carlson hosts the show “The real story with Gretchen Carlson.” She is also an honor graduate of prestigious Stanford University and studied at Oxford. Megyn Kelly hosts the popular “The Kelly File.” She is a trained attorney and the mother of three young children.

To the surprise of no one who watches FOX News, they are very conservative in their politics. What may be surprising is that some of them are far tougher interviewers than their conservative male counterparts at FOX. Recently, Ms. Kelly had the bravado to ask Tea Party favourite and Presidential candidate Ted Cruz; “What have you actually accomplished?” Contrast that to FOX News’ Sean Hannity, whose toughest question to Cruz in a previous interview was “Why do you love America?”

The FOX News women have never been kind to Mrs. Clinton and the fear and loathing of her has ramped up since she announced her intention to run for President. Their current raison d’êtreis to convince Mrs Clinton’s most passionate supporters – other women- that she is a dreadful choice. Despite whatever the news of the day may be, tune into any of the FOX News shows hosted by women, at any time of day or night, and you will get a steady diet of Hillary hysteria.

Admittedly, Mrs. Clinton has brought much of this upon herself. New allegations of wrongdoing or just bad judgement seem to surface weekly. Supporters must be asking of her: “what were you thinking?” Through it all, however, her support among women, especially Democrats and Independents, rarely subsides.

This has to be horribly frustrating to the women of FOX News. They are not trying to influence Republican women; they are likely not going to vote for Mrs. Clinton anyway. But they do want to influence the swing women voters; often Independents. A mid-April CNN poll found Mrs. Clinton way ahead of her Republican rivals, and no Republican candidate is even close to her. Of course, that can change quickly and the FOX News women are doing all they can to see that it does. Andrea Tantaros, a FOX host on “Outnumbered” said on May 20th that Mrs. Clinton was “the most corrupt woman in the history of the world.”

While that kind of inciting rhetoric will adore Ms. Tantaros to hard-core Republicans, it is doubtful to play well with all women. Ms. Tantaros would be well advised to temper her tantrums. Women may be accepting of other women criticizing Mrs. Clinton more than they are of men, but very personal attacks tend not to resonate with them.

Perhaps Ms. Tantaros’ melt down is indicative of the panic setting in at FOX. Republicans, and their surrogate voices at FOX News, are terrified of Hillary. Despite frequent revelations about her problematic ways of doing things, and in the face of daily doses of Hillary hammering on FOX News, she remains popular. Possibly, the cumulative effect of Mrs. Clinton’s blunders and the beating she is taking at the hands of FOX will wear down her support. It is also feasible that the rants of Ms. Tantaros and others will be more deleterious to FOX then they will be to Mrs. Clinton.

There is another intriguing similarity among many of the FOX News women; youth. Maybe there is too much of it and too much of the thinly veiled sex appeal. Despite their professional qualifications, FOX News management has a titillation factor they appear to hold dear with their FOX News women. But youth and sex can sometimes clash with maturity and integrity. Perhaps the addition of a few older, seasoned women on their broadcasts would improve their messaging. Some of the most powerful, respected and influential women in the world are in or near their sixties. Christine Legarde of the IMF, Angela Merkel of Germany, US Federal Reserve chairperson Janet Yellen, former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Oprah Winfrey come to mind. Surely, FOX News could find a few older, conservative women who might speak to us in a manner that would appeal to our intellect without all the juvenile temper tantrums and the stage-managed sex appeal.

Comedian Jane Curtin, now 67, rose to fame in the 1970s dead-panning the news on the long running NBC mega-hit “Saturday Night Live.” On the 40th anniversary of the show, she dead-panned again, only this time her target was the women of FOX News. “I use to be the only pretty blonde woman reading the fake news, now there is a whole network devoted to that,” she said. She’s right.

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